COURSE SCHEDULE

Below is a course schedule.We will do our best to stick to this schedule, but please note that this syllabus is subject to change.You will be notified in advance of all changes.


 
Week
Topics
Assignment Due
1/22
§Introduction to course.
§Walking tour of MetroTech.

§William Blake, �London�

1/29
Methodology
§From Alan Jacobs, Looking at Cities:�Starting to Look� and "Clues"

§Film, The Social Life of Small Urban Space

§E. B. White, "Here Is New York"

MetroTech impression piece.
2/5

The City and Nature

§Bruner Case Study:NYC Greenmarket
§Robert Sommer, �Farmers' Markets as Community Events�

§From the pastoral to the urban:Poems by Yeats, Wordsworth, Whitman, and Auden

Reading response to two poems.
2/12
§Bruner Case Study:Harlem Meer
§�Olmsted�s Trip�

§John Updike, �Spring Rain"

§Loren Eiseley, �The Judgment of Birds�

§Lewis Thomas, "Antaeus in Manhattan"

§Roger Ulrich, "View Through a Window May Influence Recovery from Surgery"

§Hartig, et al, "Restorative Effects of Natural Environment Experiences"

Reading response to two texts.
Case study site proposal.
2/19
Presidents' Day � NO CLASS
2/26

City People: Connections/ Disconnections 

§�Bartleby the Scrivener�
§�The Overcoat�

§Bruner Case Study, "Beyond Homelessness"

Response to �Bartleby� or �Overcoat.�
City story proposal.
3/5
Danger in the City
§Paule Marshall, "Poets in the Kitchen"

§Israel Horvitz, "The Indian Wants the Bronx"

§"Defensible Space:Deterring Crime and Building Community"

§Randall Atlas and William LeBlanc, "The Impact of Environmental Road Devices on Crime:Case Study Miami Shores, FL"

Response to "Poets" or "Indian."
3/12
Spring Break � NO CLASS
3/19

Empowering the Self 

§Bruner Case Studies:The Times Square and Tenant Interim Lease Project 
§From The Bluest Eye and The Invisible Man

§�The Lesson�

§Langston Hughes, "Landlord, Landlord" and "Harlem"

Response to Bluest Eye, Invisible Man or �Lesson.�
City story.

3/26

The City and History

§Film, The History of Paris
§Charles Baudelaire, �The Swan� and other selections from Parisian Scenes

§Roland Barthes, �Eiffel Tower�

§Isaac Bashevis Singer, �The Cafeteria�

Response to �The Swan� and Freud.

 

4/2

§ Bruner Case Study: Greenpoint Manufacturing Co-Op

§Marshall Berman, "In the Forest of Symbols:Some Notes on Modernism in New York"
§Bruner Awards, "What Was Learned About Excellence"

§From Jonathan Kozol, Amazing Grace

Methodology project.
4/9

The City and the Arts

§ James Baldwin, �Sonny�s Blues�

§Jazz; video, Voices and Visions:Langston Hughes
Response to �Sonny�s Blues.�
4/16

§ Bruner Case Study: Project Rowhouse

§ Art in and about the city

Response to two paintings.
Case study outline.
4/23
§Trip to Brooklyn Bridge
§Hart Crane�s �Brooklyn Bridge�

§Graffiti

Response to story.
4/30

Case study workshop

Case study draft.

5/__

(Date of final exam)

Final case study.